Google Assistant will proactively tell you if it thinks your flight will be delayed

Google’s planning to roll out a new feature for the Google Assistant that’ll give users a better idea of whether their flight might be delayed — a nice thing to know during the holidays. The company already shares these predictions through Google Flights, but soon, Assistant users can ask, “Hey Google, is my flight on time” or “what’s the status of the American Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Denver?”

Google uses a combination of machine learning with historic flight status data to make its prediction, which it says it can give with an 85 percent confidence rate. You’ll get a reason for the delay, like the incoming flight being late, whenever possible.

Other services will send actual flight delay notifications, but not predictions. Apple, for example, will send a push notification if you have a digital boarding pass in your Wallet. Most every airline carrier sends them, too, through their own app, email, text message, or by phone. The difference between Google’s approach and others is that Google predicts these delays before the airlines announce them, which you could potentially do on your own if you use websites like FlightAware and hunt for any snags in your plane’s arrival time. This simplifies that process.